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Kenneth Charles Branagh (born December 10, 1960) is a versatile Emmy Award-winning British actor and film director.
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Branagh was born in Belfast, where he was educated at Grove Primary School, Belfast; but at the age of nine relocated with his family to Reading in England. He received a honorary doctorate in Literature (D.Lit.) from Queen's University, Belfast in 1990.
Branagh has worked on both stage and screen. He received initial acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, including the title role in Hamlet. He is probably best known for his popular film adaptations of the works of William Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V in 1989 and including versions of Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and Hamlet (1996). He has also starred in a number of other successful films unrelated to Shakespeare.
Branagh has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including two for directing and acting in Henry V and another for the screenplay of Hamlet. He has also won an Emmy Award for his performance in the 2001 TV film Conspiracy.
He starred several times with his then wife, Emma Thompson; they were married in 1989, and divorced in 1995. For several years he was in a well-publicised relationship with Helena Bonham Carter, with whom he also starred several times. He married again in 2003, to film art director Lindsay Brunnock.
In 1994 Branagh declined to become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).